Speaking in his Budget the Chancellor said experts predict more than half of all boys and 70% of girls could be overweight or obese soon. He said children are consuming their own body weight in sugar every year.

In a move that will be welcomed by child health campaigners, Mr Osborne announced a sugar tax on the soft drinks industry, which will raise an estimated £520 million a year. The cash raised will be spent on doubling funding for sport in primary schools.

Sharing a picture of the announcement on Instagram, Jamie wrote: "We did it guys !!we did it !!! A sugar levy on sugary sweetened drinks ......

'A profound move that will ripple around the world ....business can not come between our Kids health !! Our kids health comes first .....

'Bold, brave , logical and supported by all the right people....now bring on the whole strategy soon to come ... Amazing news.'

But the levy will only be introduced in two years' time, giving companies time to adapt products to reduce their sugar content. It will be imposed on companies according to the volume of the sugar-sweetened drinks they produce or import.

There will be two bands - on drinks with sugar above 5g per 100ml and drinks above 8g per 100ml. Pure fruit juices and milk-based drinks will be excluded, and the smallest producers will have an exemption from the scheme.

In his budget speech Mr Osborne said: 'I am not prepared to look back at my time here in this Parliament, doing this job and say to my children's generation 'I'm sorry.

'We knew there was a problem with sugary drinks. We knew it caused disease. But we ducked the difficult decisions and we did nothing.'